UPDATED REVIEW FOR 2024
I honestly love this game, and I can't bring myself to think of it as bad, I still play it once in a while,so i'll still thumbs it up, but it's one of those rare cases where I also understand and agree with the negative criticism it received. Take this part as warning, old review is kept at the bottom.
Basically the game is guilty of two things.
The first one is that it tried to blend too much genras into a single game. Sometimes this can be good, but here every genra taken individually got dumbed down from their initial material. If you expect a perfectly crafted Procedurally generated RPG Roguelike Metroid Dread feat terraria feat civilisation, this isn't it for you. To go further into the genra rabbithole, some missions are taken from freefall and missile command, and the city building is more akind to an upgraded version of Utopia on intellivision (if you even know that game) Great game for it's time, but it's perfectly understandable why it might have felt lacking in 2012.
The second one is that a lot of core base mechanics in any of those genras are hidden behind either lore technobabble or interact with each other. For instance, usual platforming mechanics like double tap run, powerslide, double jump, negate fall damage, immunity to acid water is on the enchants(gear) you find. Or in most RPGs, they will tell you that your main character has the fire element. Here you might wonder what even forgical arts is.(It's the fire element). It makes the game appear more complicated than it actually is.
But there are a few good things that aren't apparent at first that should be said about the game.
Every area has an era and a element tied to it. So you want your earth buildings on mountains, you want your farms on grassland, you want to bring fire spells in the ocean, you want to rescue survivors in this specific area because different eras gives different bonus and so on.
The procedurally generated levels can also go into rabbit holes where you can get a dungeon that has a secret mission, then the dungeon also has a sub dungeon that has an house in it and so forth.
All in all, it's some kind of weird unique mash up with a very distinctive vibe to it, Pablo Vega made an awesome soundtrack, and if you don't expect much of it, can wrap your head around it and you like the vibe, there is some enjoyment to be found.
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I recently reinstalled all my ARCEN games, and wanted to make a review of AVWW1,because yes, while it is mostly a 2D sidescrolling game (most reviews will tell you it is), to understand the game completely requires a different mindset.
A Valley without Wind 1, is a Real Time strategy game where your character is both the worker and the only unit you have.
There it is. That's what makes the game special.
You have to balance exactly three things perfectly in order to win against the overlord and go to the next continent. Do I have enough resources? Are my spells high level enough? Have I pushed the wind far back enough? These questions entangle themselves beautifully in the actions you are going to make and the choices you can make for grand strategy purposes. Gathering resources requires exploration, and completing missions. Doing this requires the appropriate spells, having the right buildings on the map, pushing the wind back so you can build more and explore even moreso.
And so on.
The main complaint to have about the game is that, to really be two feet into how it works, and have a bit of challenge, you need to beat the first continent, which is about 10 hours of play. Though you can start the game, when creating a new world, to the second continent, which is greatly appreciated.
Everything is procedurally generated, the exploration is nice, there is a bit of a melancholic feel to the game that I appreciate as it makes it more a relaxing experience than anything. The graphics are not top of the line, but are quite pleasing, and ARCEN games are not about graphics in the first place, more like niche gameplay mechanics you cannot find elsewhere. The replayability is literally endless.
I mean, you could literally play the game until your computer buffer overflows.
